Recent experience with automation in cockpits has shown that prior approaches of adding additional functionality to flight decks increases complexity, causes overreliance on automation, and may not necessarily reduce workload, especially during critical situations. An additional challenge is that avionics manufacturers have instituted strict requirements-based design and change orders for any desired improvements, in order to provide high reliability and verifiability. Thus, conversion of legacy aircraft is generally cost prohibitive and requires a large capital investment in requirements, verification, and testing.
Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation of Manassas, Va. has previously developed a right-seat pilot assistant capable of operating a Diamond DA42 Twin Star during takeoff, cruise, and landing. The right-seat pilot assistant, called Centaur, can be installed into, and removed from, the DA42 without affecting the original type certificate, thus maintaining the aircraft's original certification. Centaur includes mechanical actuation of the primary flight controls and its own avionics suite, and may be used with a pilot in a supervisory role or as a fully unmanned aircraft. For example, Centaur may be flown by an operator in the back seat of the airplane, directing the flight plan on a laptop. While Centaur offers many features, it suffers from certain drawbacks. In particular, (1) the Centaur hardware is not portable to other aircraft, nor is the software plug-and-pay extensible to other capabilities; (2) parts of the Centaur system are invasive and require cutting into existing avionics wiring in a manner very specific to the aircraft (i.e., the DA42); (3) Centaur does not allow the onboard pilot to be the operator and to perform tasks such as directing the flight plan; and (4) Centaur does not acquire knowledge about the aircraft it is operating.
Thus, a need exists for an open architecture system that enables quick introduction of new capabilities, increases safety, grows functionality, and reduces pilot workload—without large expense or recertification. There is also a need to provide a pilot with continuous aircraft state monitoring and information augmentation, which can effectively serve as a digital flight engineer. An aircrew automation system, such as is disclosed herein, addresses these needs and enables new capabilities to be rapidly introduced with minimal certification burden while being portable across airframes (e.g., via temporary installations). As will be discussed, the aircrew automation system can provide significant benefit to a variety of end-users. An example application includes the operation of aircraft where fatigue and boredom can cause a reduction in crew attentiveness, in which case the aircrew automation system reduces risk in a flight operation by alerting the pilot and, in certain instances, assuming control of the aircraft. Other example applications exist where the potential for human error currently limits extensive use of aircraft (e.g., low-altitude operations), synchronized operations, unmanned flights, unmanned formations with manned flight lead, and improved debrief capabilities due to comprehensive data logging.